Region 7 News Room

The following article from the ﻿American College of Emergency Physicians Newsroom﻿ explains the impact that Pediatric Emergency Care Coordinators [Pediatric Champions] have on emergency departments and pediatric readiness across the nation. Approximately 50 percent of emergency departments in the U.S. are staffed with a physician or nurse to address pediatric readiness within their facilities.

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of filgrastim (trade name Neupogen) to increase survival of people acutely exposed to high doses of radiation that damage the bone marrow, for example, as a result of a nuclear power plant accident or terrorist attack. (NIAID, 4/21/15)

Summary: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has partnered with two Sierra Leone departments to trial a new vaccine that is to aid in the prevention of ebola. Healthcare and frontline workers in the Western Area Urban district are actively volunteering to test the efficacy of the vaccine. “It brings me hope and pride that my country can take from this devastating epidemic something that may benefit people around the world.”- Mohamed Samai, M.B., Ch.B., Ph.D., acting Provost of COMAHS and the study’s principal investigator.

Effective April 1, 2015, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will implement the use of a Student Identification (SID) number for all Independent Study course registrations. The FEMA SID number will serve as a person’s personal identification number instead of a Social Security Number (SSN) in support of FEMA’s effort to decrease and cease the use of an SSN for identifying and tracking individuals.

In a Perspective article published in the New England Journal of Medicine, authors discuss their views regarding childhood vaccination exemptions and the role of physicians. They feel that unvaccinated children should be barred from school attendance citing several court rulings. These rulings say it is constitutional for state and local public health to institute social distancing to prevent the spread of diseases. The role of the physician is also to promote social distancing in their practices. This would include having separate waiting areas for sick children. The authors do not support barring unvaccinated children from their practices because it may erode trust for physicians.